Martin Willis will be “UFO Podcasting” from the town hall from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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Early festivities

Head to Swasey Parkway in Exeter on Thursday, Aug. 28, first for a free performance by Southern NH Ukulele Group from 7 to 7:45 p.m., then for a free family-friendly sci-fi movie from 8 to 10 p.m.

On Friday, Aug. 29, from 7 to 10 p.m., head to Exeter Bowling Lanes, 6 Columbus Ave., for Cosmic Bowling. Cost is $12 per half hour per lane, $3.75 per game per person, $2 for rental shoes. Bowlers in alien attire will receive a discount.

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Other Saturday activities

Founders Park, next to Exeter Library, will host Alien Arts and Crafts, face painting and live entertainment from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., plus an Alien Crash Site from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Alien Oases, a tent across from town hall, will offer Saucer Burgers, UFO Dogs, Cold Hydrations, and Universal Chips, and Clyde’s Cupcakes will have its Cupcakemobile.

An Out of This World Puppy Splashdown will take place at the Exeter Rec Dept. Pool from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. $5 per dog.

In the early morning hours of Sept. 3, 1965, Norman Muscarello, a young hitchhiker, stumbled across something mysterious in the woods just outside Exeter, N.H. -- bright red lights emanating from a large object hovering low in the night sky. Other residents in the community corroborated Muscarello’s story, also claiming to have seen the strange red lights. A full explanation for the “Exeter Incident,” as it has become known, has never been given.

On Saturday, Aug. 30, the Fifth Annual Exeter UFO Festival will celebrate the 49th anniversary of the Exeter Incident with a day filled with intergalactic festivities headlined by a series of lectures from ufologists, researchers who study UFOs.

“Exeter is kind of a hotbed of interest among ufologists,” said Bill Smith, chairman of the UFO Festival and president of the Exeter Area Kiwanis Club, the organization that puts on the festival.

“Ninety-five percent of these [UFO sightings] get explained. It’s the other 5 percent that can’t be explained,” said Dean Merchant, one of the festival’s founders and creators. “[The Exeter Incident] is unexplained, and for a lot of reasons it is probably one of the most premiere sites.”

On the day of the festival, featured lecturers will be speaking in Exeter’s Town Hall. The speakers’ topics of discussion will vary from the famous Roswell, New Mexico, UFO incident to government cover-ups and other theories of UFO activity. According to Smith and Merchant, the festival attracts some of the nation’s most established researchers in the field to speak. One of this year’s speakers, Stan Friedman, has been actively involved in the scientific investigation of UFOs since 1970.

“[Friedman] is, by many people’s measuring standards, the godfather of Ufology,” Smith said. “He is a big, big name in the field.”

Merchant said that the festival and its lectures have become a draw for UFO fanatics from across the country.

“UFO tourism is a big thing, and it’s a great component for New Hampshire,” he said. “We have people that come from long distances. It’s a global phenomenon.”